It is said, that only God can make a tree, but USD 350 fifth graders did a pretty good job of making posters about trees in the annual Arbor Day poster contest.

Four St. John fifth graders, Jackie Rios, Riley Burbank, Jacquaelin Ramirez and Chase Mansel are winners of the Arbor Day Poster Contest held last Friday in St. John's Grade School. The contest was sponsored by the St. John Tree Board and under the guidance of the school's art instructor Darlene Behnke.

Jackie received top honors with her poster titled “Trees are Terrific and Forests Too”. Her entry and the other contestant's posters were judged not only for their art work but also on their content pertaining to the importance of forests in our environment.

Riley placed second while Jacquaelin Ramirez took third. Chase received an honorable mention for his poster.

Each of the top four contestants received a prize and a certificate, with a birdhouse given to the first place winner. Rios's poster was sent on to the District Forest Service office in Garden City where it was judged along with the other winning posters from Southwest Kansas.

The winning poster was then sent on to the Kansas State Forester Service office in Manhattan where the top winning poster was selected by the forestry staff.

The award ceremony Friday coincided with not only Kansas Arbor Day, but also the National Arbor Day.

Earlier this year, Barry Ragan, St. John's volunteer city forester traveled to Derby Kansas to accept St. John's award for being a “Tree City USA” for the 16th year in a row.